What Iranians Want

What do Iranians want? Is it really democracy?

well, a group of them do want democracy, without the interference of religion. A group of them want democracy and religion without knowing these two cannot always co-exist. A group of them only want to have enough money to live. A group of them have everything they need for a luxurious living and they only want some freedom.

People who participated in the last week's rallies and demonstrations, may have come from any of these groups. What they all have in common, which is the most powerful engine for their movement, is that they want Ahmadinejad out. So, in one point of view, democracy may not be seen as their prior demand. They know Ahmadinejad is a dictator, a dogmatic self-centered babbling machine, and most importantly a lier. And they cannot tolerate him for another four years.

Now the critical question: would these demonstrators still show any objection to the election results if they believed it was not rigged? The answer is a definite NO. We have a proverb in Farsi which says: "People will get what they deserve" and I've heard it being used a lot during the past four years of Ahmadinejad's embarrassing presidency. They believed people who had voted for him, along with those who had not voted (because of the dilemma), should have suffered the consequences. So in a way they respect democracy. They truly believe Mousavi is the winner, and they want him to take the power out of the hands of their current inept president.

However, through the last four days and after Khameneyi's Friday speech, this movement has taken a new direction. People have known how clerics have been ruling this country for the past 30 years, but now the dictatorship is all in the open. Now their innocent brothers and sisters are killed in the streets. Now, they are blatantly told they have no right to object to anything (be it the election results and a biased Guardian Council) because the dictator says so. Now they are fighting for freedom.

Their most difficult task is to get the other half of the society to open their eyes and see what they've been clinging on as their sacred source of Devine directions, is nothing but a corrupt system of power-loving dictators.

They Kill... I Cry... I Fight.

Tehran Now

What happened yesterday:

We set up for another peaceful demonstration in the afternoon, but all over the city, especially on main streets different kinds of police forces existed. Along Azadi street which goes from Enghlab Sq. to Azadi sq. (the path of the first rally on Monday last week), Baseeji's and Sepiahi (Revolutionary Guard) would scatter people by beating and tear gas and even stones!! I even saw some Baseeji's with machetes who would run and shout "Ya Heydar!!" Which is really a difficult thing to digest. We are all raised to love Ali (also nicknamed Heydar) whom we Iranians know as the symbol of being a hero, a champion, and now these people using that to kill their own people??

At occasions we had to run for our lives. Everywhere people were trying to gather and form a group and chant "down with the dictator" and "God is Greater". But, there were suppressed with tear gas and batons. We came home before dark but I've heard there were shootings around the city. I have seen youtube videos of people being beaten and killed. I have heard hospitals do not accept the wounded or if they do, Baseeji's will attack people who are carrying them. I've also heard that some foreign embassies in Tehran are sheltering the wounded.

I had a very disturbing day... I cried myslef to sleep last night...

Why We Protest?

To put the facts it in a nutshell:

• Admadinejad has been the president of Iran for four years.

• He was one of the four candidates in the last Friday's presidential elections.

• He was announced as the winner in a landslide victory by state media Saturday morning.

• While the three other candidates submitted their objection to the election results to the Guardian Council, and many authorities refused to recognize him as the winner, he celebrated this win by gathering supporters around a main square in Tehran on Sunday. He called people who object to the election results as "dust and dirt" and "vandals".

• There has been some brutal incidents of attacking the supporters of his main rival, Mousavi, since Saturday morning. Supporters of Mousavi have been protesting on the streets of Tehran and many other cities to show their objection to a wide scale rigging in the elections, his insult to the supporters of other candidates, his government's brutal reaction to their objections, and beating and killing of their fellow citizens.

Mousavi and his supporters are asking Iranian authorities to hold a re-election and international authorities not to recognize Ahmadinejad as the legitimate president of Iran. They believe he has won the election through a coup arranged by his Ministry of Internal Affairs (holder of the election), Ministry of Communication (disabling text messaging, throttling the Internet, filtering websites, disabling cell phone networks,...) state media, Revolutionary Guard, and support of The Leader, Khameneyi.